Issa Rae Pitching Diverse Dystopian Sci-Fi Drama

Deadline reported, Issa Rae is pitching a dystopian sci-fi series to broadcasting and streaming companies to launch a diverse writers’ initiative.

Rae is the star of HBO’s Insecure, her production company ColorCreative will lead the production. They are currently set to adapt The Awoken by Katelyn Howes.

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The scheme was set up by Rae, Sky Vision, the international distribution division of the UK pay-TV broadcaster, and Talos Films, the fledgling New York-based company set up by former MTV exec Elli Hakami and History’s former scripted exec Julian Hobbs.

The Awoken is a bold sci-fi drama following Alabine Rivers, a young adult who is resurrected from cryogenic preservation in 2103, a very different world from 201, the year she left behind. Rivers is forced to join an underground network of rebels fighting for the basic human rights of The Awoken, others like her who have been frozen and then resurrected, who are ruthlessly hunted down by a regime has restricted scientific advancement and technology and returned the country to an agrarian dystopia.

A 10-minute pilot presentation, produced by ColorCreative.TV and Talos Films and funded by Sky Vision, was shown to buyers today, Wednesday 13 December, at an event in Hollywood. The team are also set to pitch half-hour comedy pilot Court For Short from LaDarian Smith, runner up of the initiative.

Rae, who earlier this week received a best actressGolden Globe nomination for Insecure , was keen to help other new writers after being discovered by posting episodes of her autobiographical series Awkward Black Girl on YouTube, where it received over 20M viewers. She said that providing a platform for “underrepresented” voices was extremely important to her, “particularly with so many polarizing views dominating the mainstream right now”. “I’m so pleased that Fresh Wave has produced not just a fantastic winner in Katelyn, but a wealth of new voices amongst the other finalists, showing that there is a huge amount of diverse young talent out there ready to light up our screens,” she added.